If you say to someone who has ears to hear: "What you are doing to me is not just," you may touch and awaken at its source the spirit of attention and love. But it is not the same with words like, "I have the right..." or "you have no right to..." They evoke a latent war and awaken the spirit of contention.

Punishment is a vital need of the human soul.

The extreme greatness of Christianity lies in the fact that it does not seek a supernatural remedy for suffering but a supernatural use for it.

To want friendship is a great fault. Friendship ought to be a gratuitous joy, like the joys afforded by art or life.

The only way into truth is through one's own annihilation; through dwelling a long time in a state of extreme and total humiliation.

Algebra and money are essentially levelers; the first intellectually, the second effectively.

The glossy surface of our civilization hides a real intellectual decadence.